page_title: Exhibition Stadium
section_title: Reconfiguration for baseball
hierarchical_section_title: Exhibition Stadium / History / Reconfiguration for baseball
caption_attribution_description: Second league game for the Toronto Blue Jays. Unlike the first game played in a snow storm, this day was bright and sunny with the temperature well below freezing.
context_page_description: Canadian National Exhibition Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium that formerly stood on the Exhibition Place grounds, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally built for Canadian National Exhibition events, the stadium served as the home of the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, from 1959–1988, the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball from 1977–1989, and the Toronto Blizzard of the North American Soccer League from 1979–1983. The stadium hosted the Grey Cup game 12 times over a 24-year period.
  In 1999, the stadium was demolished and the site was used for parking until 2006. BMO Field was built on the site in 2007 roughly where the northern end of the covered grandstand once stood.
  The grandstand was used extensively throughout the summer months for hosting concerts.
context_section_description: In 1974, in a bid to acquire a Major League Baseball team, the city voted to reconfigure the stadium to make it compatible for baseball, leading to the arrival of Major League Baseball in Toronto in 1977 in the form of the Toronto Blue Jays. (The initial plan for an MLB team called for the San Francisco Giants to move to Toronto; the proposed move fell through.)
  Originally planned to cost CA$15 million before growing to CA$17.5 million, the renovations, which were funded by the city and province, added seating opposite to the covered grandstand on the first base side and curving around to the third base side. Football capacity was increased from 33,150 before the renovations to 41,890 initially, then finally to 54,741 after work was completed. Although the stadium was expanded to accommodate baseball, the new seats were first used for football and allowed the 64th Grey Cup in November 1976 to be watched by a then-Grey Cup record crowd of 53,467. For baseball, the stadium originally seated 38,522, however by the Blue Jays' second season this increased to 43,739, although, only about 33,000 seats were usually made available (see below).
  Even in its new, expanded form, Exhibition Stadium was problematic for hosting both baseball and football. Blue Jays' President Paul Beeston noted Exhibition Stadium "wasn't just the worst stadium in baseball, it was the worst stadium in sports."
caption: A Toronto Blue Jays game during the 1977 season
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